Editor's note: Changes in the B.C. restaurant, lounge and pub scene: On December 2, 2002, the moratorium on new cold beer and wine stores was lifted and a change made to allow restaurants to dedicate a maximum of 40 lounge seats where customers can order drinks without food. Customers may also take home unfinished, resealed bottles of wine. Restaurants, bars, and pubs may also open earlier and remain open until 4:00 a.m., subject to municipal approval.

As boaters to B.C. know, food has become one of British Columbia's foremost people pleasers. British Columbians take pride in sharing the rich and diverse harvest of ingredients always available. Visitors quickly discover its many restaurants offering the world in a smorgasbord of culinary delights to suit every taste, every budget and every mood.

B.C. chefs are leaders in the evolution of what's come to be known as west coast or Pacific northwest cuisine with its emphasis on fresh seafood and produce. But visitors can also sample the world in restaurants featuring Portuguese, northern Italian, Persian, Ethiopian, Cajun, Hungarian, Lebanese, Swedish, Singaporean, Indonesian, Spanish, Swiss, East Indian, or a combination of any and all.

Asian cultures have had the most influence on the B.C. culinary evolution because British Columbia has long been a magnet for Pacific Rim peoples. Diners have dozens of Cambodian, Vietnamese, Thai and, above all, Chinese and Japanese restaurants to try.

Local non-Asian chefs have also embraced the simplicity, the textures, the color contrasts and the lightness of Oriental cooking. Combining Asian with strong British and continental ties, British Columbia is in the forefront of fusion cuisine. Italian chefs make risottos from shiitake mushrooms. French chefs sauce their fish with pickled ginger beurre blanc and add Indian candy (hot-smoked salmon) to their salads. Chinese chefs skillfully shave geoduck siphons for their firepots and Japanese restaurants sell B.C. rolls.

The original cuisine of British Columbia was that of First Nations peoples who were traditionally hunters, gatherers and fishers. On the coast, the native diet centred around the "five tribes of salmon" - spring, sockeye, coho, chum and pink. They were so plentiful that in some native languages the words for "fish" and "salmon" are the same. Oysters, abalone, crab, mussels, and that giant of clams, the geoduck, are ingredients First Nations here have been cooking for centuries.

Today, First Nation peoples are opening restaurants where diners can sample such Native delicacies as oolichan grease on bannock bread, wind-dried and steamed-smoked salmon and soap-berry mousse.

Above all, B.C. cuisine is grounded in a firm commitment to using locally produced foods, the best fish and shellfish, meats and fowl, game, produce, herbs, fruits, berries, cheese, wine and beer.

Sprawling orchards and field gardens in the Okanagan, on Vancouver Island, and in the Fraser Valley outside Vancouver yield robust crops of apples, pears, peaches, raspberries, cherries, plums, cranberries and an alphabet soup of vegetables. Market gardens under glass produce vine-ripened tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and lettuce nine months of the year. Farmers raise beef, pork and lamb by conventional methods or specialize in growing organically. Others market free-range chickens and pheasants, fallow deer, wild boar, even ostrich.

British Columbians farm salmon and trout, mussels and some of the best oysters in the world. Mushrooms abound and include morels, boletus, puffballs, shaggy manes or pine. And that's not including cultivated field, oyster and shiitake mushrooms.

Interestingly, British Columbians consume more wine per capita than any other province or state in North America. Vancouver hosts the largest public wine festival on the continent.

Winemaking began here when Father Pandosy planted vines in the Okanagan Mission district near the present-day city of Kelowna. Grapes still grow in the Mission district more than 135 years later.

In all, B.C. vineyards total thousands of acres of vinefera grapes, across four Vintner's Quality Alliance (VQA) appelations or areas. Established in 1990, VQA is an "appelation of origin" system which assures consumers the wine they are enjoying is made primarily from grapes grown in a specific area.

To obtain a brochure describing wineries located in specific VQA areas such as Vancouver Island, the Fraser Valley, Okanagan Valley, and Similkameen Valley, call 250-490-2006. Email: bcwine@vip.net Many of these wineries are accessible from moorage.

Among the still and sparkling wines of B.C. are riesling, chardonnay, pinot blanc, pinot gris, pinot noir, merlot, gamay noir, cabernet sauvignon, and the prized ice wine. The largest and most important wine-producing area is the Okanagan Valley, but on the mainland surrounding Vancouver and on Vancouver Island, in such areas as Victoria, Cowichan Bay, Duncan and Nanaimo, there has been an explosion of boutique wineries.

Oenophiles can easily savor a tour of the Okanagan wine country in Okanagan Valley. Trailer boaters travel inland approximately 350 km from Vancouver and spend entire vacations exploring the waters of Okanagan Lake and the communities of Penticton and Kelowna. The spectacular semi-arid valley runs 120 km along the shores of seven narrow lakes. More than three dozen wineries are found in the region, ranging from large commercial concerns to tiny farm-gate businesses operating from a home or small out-building. Spring and Fall Festivals feature name entertainment, and restaurants with gourmet meals as well as winery tours.

Joining the rising tide of B.C. wines are hand-crafted beers. In Vancouver, on Vancouver Island, and in the Okanagan, micro-breweries are turning out "boutique" brews, available either in adjacent brew-pubs or restaurants, or bottled for take-away.

Clean German-styled lagers and firm-flavored, full-hopped British ales dominated early tastes, but increasingly brewers are trying more eclectic techniques such as roasted hops to produce smoked porters or hints of raspberry or blueberry to sweeten.